DVD image quality on an HDTV

May 4, 2009 6:50 PM

Help me understand why standard definition DVDs vary in image quality on a HDTV

Some of my standard DVDs have sharp, crisp images on my 52" 1080P TV. Some standard DVD images are grainy.

I play the DVDs through a Blu-Ray player, with an HDMI cable hooked into the HDMI port in the back of the TV. Blu-Ray discs of course look amazing.

I've done a bit of googling but I probably don't know the correct term to figure this out. My assumption is this: some DVDs contain less information than others. Those that contain less information have grainier images than those that contain more?

Thoughts? Is there a resource that explains this in detail?

Thanks

posted by dfriedman to technology (11 comments total)

Upscaling shouldn't be the issue, because you're using the same dvd player for all the discs.

It's definitely possible that you have dvds that were created with a poor quality telecine. Do you have examples of discs that look bad?
posted by null terminated at 7:00 PM on May 4

Also, I'd check if the good looking discs are anamorphic widescreen.
posted by null terminated at 7:01 PM on May 4

DVDs need to be mastered -- converted from film to video and then compressed into the limitation of the amount of storage on a DVD -- and can look good or bad depending on who's doing the mastering, even when they're taken from the same print.

I'd recommend taking a look at some of the non-Blu-Ray DVD Comparisons on this site to see just how different the same film can look on DVD when mastered by different individuals and released by different companies. This comparison of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg DVDs is very telling -- some of the DVDs look pristine, others look grainy, despite the fact that all of the labels had access to recently restored prints of the movie.
posted by eschatfische at 7:11 PM on May 4 [1 favorite]

An example of a DVD that looks bad is my copy of Goodfellas.

These two links are helpful, thanks.
posted by dfriedman at 7:11 PM on May 4

Note also that some films have more grain than others. Sometimes it's just a consequences of some other choice such as film stock, other times it's an active aesthetic choice.

Anyway, one of the reasons that a movie might appear grainier is that it really is grainier.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:45 PM on May 4

DVDs are encoded at different bitrates. Higher video bitrate = higher quality.

If you've ever heard of Superbit, these DVDs were specifically encoded at a higher bitrate for better quality, usually removing extras/menus/commentary tracks.
posted by wongcorgi at 7:45 PM on May 4 [1 favorite]

I've found that many of my older DVDs have lower quality picture than newer ones. Especially ones that were released before 2000.
As has already been said, it depends on how well it was mastered, and the bit rate.
Superbit is great. I wish there were more available.
posted by nickthetourist at 8:24 PM on May 4

I've been renting DVD's recently, and watching them on my computer. A lot of newer DVD's are being released on dual layer discs, with up to 8GB of space. The films tend to take up all of the space. On the other hand, older DVD's are the standard 4.7GB format. Maybe that has something to do with the quality difference as well?
posted by Ghidorah at 10:51 PM on May 4

An example of a DVD that looks bad is my copy of Goodfellas

If it's not the 2-disc special edition, it's a very early, crummy, DVD release, that is definitely not anamorphic. A non-anamorphic widescreen DVD may only be stretching 300 pixels of image over your whole 1080p display, compared to an anamorphic one which is using 480 pixels.
posted by smackfu at 6:03 AM on May 5

The quality - or lack thereof - of early DVD's (and the notoriously inept quality control of certain companies like New Yorker, Facets, Media Blasters, etc) may be compounded by the picture settings on your television. Do watch discs with your picture setting on Sports or Vivid? If so - then that is definitely the real issue!

Unless you have properly adjusted your picture controls (the color, contrast, sharpness, et al.) - you are not viewing the material as intended by the producers and engineers of the discs (both Blu-ray and standard dvd). Excessive grain on a standard dvd strikes me as the ubiquitous home viewer issue in which your sharpness setting way too high

This can be remedied by purchasing or renting Video Essentials: HD Basics and setting up your television properly.

This will not remedy alll of the problems with discs from New Yorker and especially Facets - but it will give you a lot more knowledge about the abilities and weaknesses of your monitor.

Last year I was watching Animeigo's disc of the truly excellent BALLAD OF NARAYAMA and accidentally hit the "picture" button on my remote and switched my Sony HDTV to Vivid and the image degraded to the point that it looked like it was snowing digital noise - cycling back to the Pro (my Video Essentials calibrated setting) made the disc's transfer look just fine...
posted by cinemafiend at 7:02 AM on May 5

Here is a link I found that explains in detail how to use the Video Essentials: HD Basics DVD referred to above.

Thanks again for all the responses.
posted by dfriedman at 9:04 AM on May 5